Computer viruses and other nefarious programs can be a real annoyance for computer users. For example, viruses can send annoying marketing messages to a user, or can enroll the user's computer in a botnet that employs the computer for improper uses such as distributed denial of service attacks. Bad programs can be more than annoying when they are able to access confidential information from a user's computer. For example, a program might intercept credit card information or other user data, and a syndicate that distributes the program may use such information for purposes of identity theft or other such purposes.
To prevent such problems, a computer operating system may request permissions from a user each time an application is run and attempts to access particular computing resources. For example, the operating system may stop the execution of a program, and may display a warning box to a user. The operating system may prevent further execution of the program, or access by the program to the user's data, until the user has explicitly indicated that the program can have such access. Such constant interruption by an operating system may itself be a real annoyance for the computer user.